A somber evening ends...

A life drawing done with the Collective drawing group, made with a marker and fine pen.

Jess' Bee tattoo

I have a biologist friend who works on plant-insect interactions. A while ago she requested a design for a bee tattoo. I produced two options; a side view:

And also a top view:

I thought a biologist might like to be reminded of the inevitability of death, but apparently I was wrong about that. She did end up using the bee, though.

And because I like bees, I worked out a repeated ornamental design suitable for wallpaper or fabric. It would work nicely on a man's shirt.

Two heads, one model

From time to time it happens that I encounter someone so preoccupied (or oblivious) that I can make repeated studies in one sitting. This happy circumstance is, sadly, rather rare. People tend to be going places...

In this case the woman alternated between sleeping and checking her phone for quite a while - I had time to notice just how different she looked from different angles.

It's not easy being educated

Ingres' Psaltery

A drawing of our friend Reinisa, done with marker and two colours of china marker.

Winter Wonder

Studying in February is the worst. Scant hours of daylight, and those cloudy or snow-covered. Better to sleep, really. Like bears. Life is better in May.

The Bedford

The interior of the Bedford in Toronto. It's a bit rough, but I don't recall whether I was drunk or just drawing in a hurry.

Night on the Piazza

A sketch with ink and dip pen from the south portico on Piazza della Republica in Florence. It was an awkward drawing to do - balancing a pot of india ink and another of water is always a pain.

Library Girl

I enjoy how certain people, because you see them every day on the subway or in the library, become landmarks as familiar as churches or Starbucks. Even though you never meet them.

The blotch on her back is a tattoo showing through her shirt. Some things I just won't attempt in a small  china marker sketch. The marks down the left side of the drawing are caused by me leaving the marker in the sketchbook as a bookmark. I shouldn't do that.

un paysage

A small pastoral (literally!) landscape. Something like this could be almost anywhere, but as it happens it's in Touraine, France, a short distance from the small town of Montrichard.

This kind of bucolic vista isn't really my thing; I was feeling experimental that day.

Two girls at a party. Again with the china marker.

Two quick sketches

in the usual cafe sketchbook. Done with a china marker.

Failure of Chance

This is a picture about not getting what you want. Or more precisely, it's about the risk implicit in desire; how sometimes acting on what you want doesn't get you what you want, and how taking a chance is not always the best course of action - no matter what your friends might urge.

The etching is from a series about the fallibility of desire and the fundamental inefficiency of human communication. As in physics, where entropy attends every energetic reaction, so in life misconceptions and misunderstandings accompany every human interaction.

It's a largish print, etched on aluminum and worked over with watercolour. There's others from the series here and here, and a related painting by Tarragon here.

Looking up Via Giovanni Dupre from the loggia at the back of the Palazzo Publico in Siena.

It was done very rapidly with pencil and watercolour.

Old age and treachery invariably overcome youth and enthusiasm

A drawing from life, done in about twenty minutes with a brush pen and a strong light.

A spot of life drawing

James demonstrates again just how lithe and agile he is...

Girl with laptop

If you spend long enough indoors, it's tempting to work outside even on the coldest day.

Dr Sketchy's

Two drawings from the last Dr.Sketchy's in Toronto I attended, back in September. The model was Obskyura.

Both drawings were done with marker in a 8.5x11" sketchbook. The poses were short - about ten minutes, I think.

Caution honey

You're never alone...

Anna

wraps herself up. It was a cold cold night.

Lourmarin

Back in France: a view of chateau and church in the charming - albeit touristy - village of Lourmarin. It's Provence at its most ostentatiously pretty, which even if you like pretty things (and I do) can be a bit hard to take.

It's one of those places in which none of the sights (including Camus' grave) are of much individual interest. Together, however, they make for a nice day trip.